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- cross-posted to:
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Just 48 hours before the first day of school, the Arkansas Department of Education announced that Advanced Placement African American Studies wouldn’t count towards graduation. They said they’re reviewing the course for possible indoctrination.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on Fox News to explain her administration’s decision to de-prioritize AP African American studies.
“We cannot perpetuate a lie to our students, and push this propaganda leftist agenda, teaching our kids to hate America, and hate one another," she said.
Sanders has not pointed to anything specific in the AP African American Studies curriculum. The Arkansas Department of Education notified teachers that they’d deleted the course code for AP African American Studies. That means students can’t get graduation credit for taking it.
Not to mention having to stand for the flag and sing the anthem every day.
…it is every day, right? Because honestly to me as an European it seems sufficiently absurd (and kinda gross) that I just have to ask to make sure lmao
Pledge, yes. Anthem, no. And legally they can’t force students to participate in the pledge. It’s a violation of their 1st amendment rights. Though I couldn’t say how many students actually know that. Meanwhile there are plenty of teachers and faculty that definitely DON’T know that, and will bully kids who refuse to participate.
Yep, my daughter decided she didn’t want to say the pledge anymore in fifth grade because “it’s stupid to say a pledge to a flag.” Can’t say I disagree. Her “teacher” (not an actual teacher despite being a public school, but that’s another story) made her go sit out in the hall for refusing to say the pledge and she got a long email from me telling her all about West Virginia v. Barnette and telling her that if she either forced my daughter to say the pledge or punished her for not saying it again, she’d be hearing from my lawyer.
I got an apology. My daughter, unfortunately, did not, but she never had to say the pledge again. And after that, about half the class sat out.
They can’t punish students for not saying it. But they can use social pressure to essentially force them to say it. It worked on me when I was a kid.
The pledge of allegiance, not the anthem. But yes, it was every day. Although, where I grew up, it was never enforced, and most kids didn’t stand or participate.
At my school(in the 90s) we were taught the pledge, but didn’t really do it again after that except a few special occasions.